Finding MaxDarren M. Jorgensen

Five-year-old Max is abducted from a playground on a hot summer day while his brother, Gary, has his back turned. Seventeen years later, Max returns to Gary’s life in a serendipitous twist with a disturbing tale to tell. As they learn to love and trust each other, they must outwit and outrun the nefarious Quinn, who seeks to re-abduct Max for his own evil purposes. Killing Gary and his new girlfriend, Jean, to get them out of his way is just part of his plan. Will they escape? And when all is said and done, will Max and Gary ever truly be freed from the shackles of guilt and pain from the past? Amid the gritty, harsh landscape of New York City, Finding Max explores those areas of society we seldom like to look at—homelessness, hunger and sexual abuse—with profound delicacy, brutal honesty and compassion. This thrilling novel will keep you reading long into the night.

Darren M. Jorgensen

Darren M. Jorgensen grew up among the fields and forests of Alberta, Canada. At seventeen, he left home for greener pastures. He settled in various cities, including Toronto, Montreal, Stratford, Sault Ste. Marie and New York City. While in New York, Jorgensen worked at the United Nations in various capacities, even spending a year in Baghdad to help dismantle Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction programs. After returning to the States, he matriculated at Brown University at 30 years old, one of only six adults older than traditional college age granted admission that year.

While at Brown, Jorgensen garnered several awards, all in the area of video and film production. Later, at the University of Michigan School of Art & Design, he directed, produced and shot the film At the Hands of Another: When Someone You Love Is Murdered, a documentary that incorporated personal interviews with family members of murder victims.

Jorgensen has studied law, society, art, theatre and professional photography. But it became too clear during his years of higher education that his first love was writing. He has always fed his passions through involvement in book clubs and writing groups. Writing has served as the best vehicle for Jorgensen to explore the trauma of homelessness, hunger, extreme poverty and illness, issues he’s faced throughout his adult life. He wrote his debut novel, Finding Max, in just 12 days.

Jorgensen now lives back in his native province, on a farm east of Edmonton, with his wonderful wife, Ginette, and two extraordinary dogs, Dobby and Molly, who march to the beat of their own drum. He loves to walk with his dogs through the fields while watching the sun rise on the eastern horizon.